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Adelaide Football Club
The Adelaide Football Club, nicknamed the Crows, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club is based in Adelaide, South Australia, playing its home matches at Adelaide Oval. The club has its training and administration base at Football Park in West Lakes, where it previously played home matches between 1991 and 2013. The club song is "The Pride of South Australia", to the tune of the Marines' Hymn.http://www.afc.com.au/the%20club/tabid/4491/default.aspx The Crows were formed in 1990 after a supreme court injunction to halt The Port Adelaide Football Club from entering the AFL and instead the Crows were, effectively, meant to be the 'state team' that was going to represent South Australia in the AFL. They are a composite team originally owned by the SANFL (later gaining independence) and played their first season in 1991. They won both the 1997 and 1998 Grand Finals, and have appeared in 15 finals series in their 27-year history. The club is currently captained by Taylor Walker and coached by Don Pyke. Walker was appointed captain prior to the 2015 season, while Pyke permanently succeeded the late Phil Walsh as head coach in October 2015. History 2000s: Finals and near misses The Crows next made the finals in 2001 AFL season, this after losing their opening three matches for the season. Adelaide played fifth-placed Carlton at the MCG in the First Elimination Final and were roundly defeated, 17.16 (118) to 6.14 (50). High-profile forward Darren Jarman announced his retirement after the match. Adelaide's impressive 2002 AFL season (in which they achieved a 15-7 win-loss record) came undone at the penultimate stage, losing the Collingwood in the Preliminary Final at the MCG. Ben Hart won his second Malcolm Blight Medal in 2002, with Tyson Edwards finishing runner-up. Brett Burton led the Crows' goalkickers with 51. Hart and Mark Ricciuto were both named as All-Australians. Adelaide then extracted some revenge by defeating Collingwood in the pre-season competition in 2003, a first win of its kind for the club. The Crows' impressive 2003 season was eventually halted by the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba in the semi-finals. That season Adelaide captain Mark Ricciutobecame the first Crow to win the Brownlow Medal for the best and fairest player in the AFL in a three-way tie with Adam Goodes and Nathan Buckley.14 The Crows returned to finals in 2005 and recorded a famous win in what to this day remains the only Showdown match against rivals Port Adelaide in the semi-finals. They then lost once more at the penultimate stage (preliminary final), to West Coast at Subiaco Oval by 16 points. This was a feat the club unfortunately repeated in 2006 when they again lost to West Coast in the preliminary final, this time at home and by an even smaller margin. Remarkably, Adelaide went on to qualify for finals for each of the remaining seasons in the 2000s, falling short at the elimination or semi-final on each occasion. Collingwood proved to be the most obvious of villains, knocking the Crows out of the finals race successively in 2008 and 2009. Andrew McLeod and Bernie Vince won club best and fairest awards in that time. Adelaide's finals runs in the 2000s Club honour board Club achievements Records * Lowest score for: 3.6 (24) – vs St Kilda at Etihad Stadium on 22 July 2011 (Round 18) * Longest losing streak: 9 matches – from 8 August 1999 (Round 19, vs Brisbane Lions at Football Park) to 8 April 2000 (Round 5, vs Brisbane Lions at the Gabba) References Category:Australian Football League clubs Category:Sports clubs established in 1990 Category:Sporting clubs in Adelaide